ClipperBlog Live’s Best Moment

Andrew runs another solo show, this time discussing why the Clippers’ offense went south against the Pacers’ top-ranked defense after the first six minutes.

Check Your Messages

Schedule Loss?
Most teams complain about their schedule at some point in the season. It’s natural to hit a couple of rough patches during the course of an 82-game season.

But the Los Angeles Clippers certainly a have a reason to wonder if they did anything wrong to the schedule makers as they endure their second two-week road trip of the season.

The Clippers lost the second game of their road trip to the Indiana Pacers, 106-92, and dropped another road game against one of the top five teams in the league. So far this season the Clippers have dropped road games to the Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and now Indiana. The one constant in each of those loses: the second night of a road back-to-back.

“It’s hard,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “Every day is a gauge as far as I’m concerned. It’s more how mentally tough we are.”– Arash Markazi at ESPN Los Angeles

A Change in the Offense
The excuses were there. It was the second night of a back-to-back. The Clippers were on the road. They didn’t have Chris Paul. They were coming off a relatively gritty win heading into Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where the Pacers now own a 21-1 record. No one wins in Indiana, but it wasn’t the Clippers’ loss that was disappointing. It was the way they lost.

Early in the game, the Clippers got away from Blake Griffin, whom they have consistently run their offense through since Paul went down with his shoulder injury. Griffin got his shots. He got his stats. But he didn’t run the offense much, which may have been why we saw the Clippers create such a huge deficit with all the early mid-range Jamal Crawford jumpers.– Fred Katz

Jovan Buha is an NBA contributor for ESPN.com, primarily focusing on Clippers and Lakers coverage. He has previously written for FOX Sports, Grantland, the Washington Post and Rivals. Jovan graduated from USC with a degree in Print & Digital Journalism in 2014.